A friend took me to a new marvelous thrift store. I broke my rule of, something goes out for anything that comes in,  but I’ve stayed away from thrift stores and yard sales  for over a year now.  At least I didn’t get another jig saw puzzle…

One find was a bright red vase with only a small hole at its top–for a single flower, of course.  There was a Green Eggs and Ham game for me to play with my youngest daughter, and a couple of books.  I want to share one entry that surprised me, and hope you may be interested, too.  It is in the book The Joy of Trivia by Bernie Smith,  and the entry reads,  on page 81:

     In May 1703, a “middle-sized man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion; a hooked nose, wearing a wig and has a large mole near his mouth,”  was placed in the pillory to face the jeers and abuse of the London mob.  His crime was seditious libel.  He was a Dissenter.

     As he stood there, in pillory, in disgrace, he wrote a poem, “A Hymn to the Pillory,”  which he sold to the crowd. The people loved it, and his disaster turned into a triumph.

     Twenty-five years later, after twenty years of nothing but trouble, he wrote Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders and has since been known as “father of the English novel.”

     Ex-tile and brick maker, ex-beer salesman, ex-wine, cloth, oysters and tobacco salesman, he was Daniel Defoe.